Messy New Tenant
by whysosiriusumbridge
Summary: Hermione Granger feels incredibly lonely at Grimmauld Place, what with Harry out of continent, doing Merlin-knows-what and his Godsister still in America, Kreacher was the only company she had. So, she decides to move out and thankfully, finds the proper flat for her work, which is nothing if not messy. Let's just hope that the other two guys aren't clean freaks.
1. Messy

**So, a new story. It's a part of a larger crossover I'm planning and had decided to publish this piece later on since it's way ahead in the whole story but I just couldn't resist. ENJOY!**

**Chapter 1:**

_Dear Harry,_

_I received your letter yesterday and decided not to reply since the thought of contacting me entered your little head after three frigging months of no word! But then I thought that you'll probably keep bugging me and somehow find a way to make up._

_So yeah. I'm as fine as can be with Kingsley hounding me for the reports for what happened in Forks and me refusing him time and again. The others are also fine. We found out who Lavender was 'secretly dating'. Turns out he was a douchebag, left her moping. I think Ron and Ginny are planning revenge while Draco and I distract her. Talking of him, I think the ferret has found someone finally, he was talking about her yesterday, wants us all to meet her. Theo and Emily are still back in America, though Theo refused Draco's restaurant job. He was pissed for a long time._

_And thanks for letting me crash at Grimmauld but it's no fun, really. It's really lonely without you and Em and however hard Kreacher tries, old habits die hard. So anyway, I've decided to move out. Finalised a nice place yesterday on Baker's Street. The woman, Mrs Hudson, sounded a lot like Mrs. Weasley so I thought it'd fit perfectly. I still have to see the place once. Actually, I'm set up in half an hour._

_Let's hope the two others who I'm supposed to share with aren't clean freaks. Stay out of trouble and if there's an emergency, you'll have to call me, Grimmauld will be empty and I don't know I'll be able to get a Floo set up in the new place._

_Again, try to stay out of trouble._

_Love,_

_Mia_

Hermione quickly stamped the end with her ring (which had the initials HG in frolic cursive), her old family heirloom. She then folded up the parchment and thrust it into her bag. Grabbing her coat and scarf, she hurriedly made her way out of Grimmauld Place and once out, locked the door with her wand.

Hermione walked swiftly towards the busier street of the next block, and hailed a taxi for Baker Street as the door of No. 12 disappeared from view.

* * *

><p>It would have been much easier really, Hermione thought, if the git could learn to work with a little bit of technology for once. It was getting frustrating for her to get a new mobile phone for Harry every few months and if not her, then Draco was constantly complaining about it. And this time, she couldn't even talk to him via the Floo for at least a couple of weeks.<p>

"Here, Miss." The driver said, pulling up in front of 221 Baker Street, which was next to a cafe called Speedy's. She got out of the car, and handing the change to the cabby, walked up the few steps to the door, and knocked twice on the wooden door.

There were a few thumps from inside and a few moments later, an old woman opened the door.

"Hello, Mrs. Hudson? Hermione Granger, we talked yesterday." Hermione said, thrusting her hand out and the woman looked surprised for a few beats, before smiling softly and shaking her hand.

"Ah yes, my dear. Come on in, come on in." She said easily and ushered her inside, closing the door behind her.

"It's upstairs, the room, dearie, and the boys are also home. You'll get the chance to meet them too. Really sweet, both of them." The woman said, chuckling softly, talking the way upstairs, Hermione following closely.

She knocked once and then opened the door and slipped inside. Hermione's first impression of the room was of Grimmauld Place's living room, only a little bit lighter and with additional soft music playing in the back ground. Hermione felt immediately at ease.

A collection of all kinds of weird items littered the room: a severed hand which looked suspiciously like the Hand of Glory, there were a few fingers poking out from under the sofa and three gelatinous substances at different locations all over the room. All in all, the room looked like an illegal apothecary. Added with an extra of papers and clothes and a laptop, along with a gun poking out from a chair.

"Boys, I think I asked you to clean up." Mrs. Hudson said disapprovingly and Hermione finally noticed the two other men in the room.

One was blonde and shortish with a kind face but hard eyes. He was clean shaven and looked on edge.

The second man's face was not in view because he was the one playing the soft music, with a violin, and was standing at the window with his back turned.

"I did try Mrs. Hudson, I swear I did but you know how he is." The blond man said exasperatedly, closing the book he had been reading.

"Oh sorry. Didn't see you there." He said, taking note of Hermione's presence and immediately stood up from the couch he had been sitting on. "I'm John Watson." He said, offering his hand.

The man carried himself exactly like an experienced army man and his hands were calloused too. Definitely a soldier, Hermione thought, shaking his hand, "Hermione Granger. Pleased to meet you."

Looking over at the tall man by the window, Watson sighed. "That's my friend Sh-"

"I think I am very much capable of introducing myself, thank you, John." The other man interrupted in a drawling voice, finally putting down his instrument and facing the others in the room.

He looked like his face had been chiselled from marble, that alone would explain the high cheekbones and complexion, Hermione decided.

"You're not here with a case, are you?" was the man's greeting and Hermione faced a bout of confusion.

"I'm sorry? What case?" Hermione replied, depositing her bag on a nearby table. The dark haired man's eyes followed this movement and Hermione looked at the blond man, seeking some clue that this was normal.

The man called John gaped for a few seconds at her instead, and then at Sherlock's highly bored expression. "She doesn't know who you are." He exclaimed gleefully.

"Should I?" Hermione shot back with a raised eyebrow.

Mrs. Hudson gave a short scoff. "She's here for the room boys. Your new flatmate, Sherlock. Better behave. Tea dear?" she asked Hermione, who smiled an affirmative.

As Mrs. Hudson shuffled out the door and down the stairs, Hermione started looking around the room, when John offered to show it to her.

"Sorry about him. That's as social as he gets." He said conversationally.

"Oh it's alright. I don't mind." Hermione responded with a smile as she looked at the fridge which had a large note saying 'ONLY EDIBLE ITEMS SHERLOCK'.

"You don't? That'll probably be your best bet." John chuckled nervously. "I'm an ex-army doctor but I mostly help Sherlock with his cases. He's a consulting detective." The man added after a minute.

"I work with the British Government. Hush-hush department, you won't know about it." Hermione replied flippantly, almost unthinkingly.

She felt John stiffen but resume his shuffling after a moment, but the music from the other side of the room stopped completely.

"Which hush-hush department Ms. Granger?" asked the man called Sherlock, without turning from his position.

"It's hush-hush for a reason Mr. Sherlock." Hermione replied easily, pretending that they were discussing the weather instead of the highly compromising topic of her job.

There was a pregnant pause which Hermione pretended to ignore and then exclaimed before she could help herself- "Are those frog eyes?!"

John pointed towards Sherlock, who turned suddenly, already shouting the warning, "Don't touch-"

"With bare hands. They should always be touched with needles or something because direct human touch makes them decompose fast. I know." She said, chuckling slightly while examining the eyes.

Her chuckles turned to barely stifled laughter when she noticed the look on Sherlock's face. He was undeniably surprised.

"You never told me." John said disbelievingly, looking accusingly at Sherlock, a hint of hurt in his voice.

"I knew you'd never touch them with a ten foot pole, let alone your hands." Sherlock said easily and then proceeded to do some corrections in his notes, facing outward again.

"Ah, a severed head too." Hermione exclaimed upon examining the refrigerator, and was that approval in her own voice?

"I like this place." she announced finally, with a satisfied look on her face, back in the living room.

"Oh." John said intelligently, looking pointedly at the mess around the room, Sherlock, and then the girl.

"Not too messy for your tastes?" he asked at last, a pathetic attempt at finding something normal to say.

"Of course not, John. Hermione likes my experiments." Sherlock said, without turning back, still sounding bored.

"Exactly. I love the mess, it helps me to think. In fact, I think I might be adding to it." Hermione replied happily.

She thought she heard John groan quietly, "I'm not destined to live with a normal person."

Mrs. Hudson came in with the tea at that moment and Hermione enjoyed chatting with the old woman, who did, after all, remind her of Mrs. Weasley.

And the flat, she decided, was perfect for her.

**So, how was it? Good? Bad? Normal? I know it's nothing different but I am going to develop it more in the later chapters. Have it all planned out.**

**This IS multi-chaptered and can't say much about the update schedule but I do know that reviews egg me on.**

**How WAS it?**


	2. Opinions

**I was absolutely thrown by the response.. *does a happy dance* Seriously guys, I can't stress this enough, Thank You SO MUCH! I love each and every one of you! And for my friends who were unavailable for PMs:**

**Sarah: Thank you for that. :) As for the romantic pairings.. I don't know how to say this, but I'm not very much sure how you mean it.. As I mentioned, it's a part of a larger crossover, so I can't really explain.. You could please log in next time or PM me? I would love to talk on it. Thank you so much for reviewing. :)**

**Christina: Thank you so much for that! It made me fluffy inside. :D THANK YOU!**

**Guest: (Interesting) I hope it stays that way too. :) And I'd really appreciate it if you log in next time. :) Thanks for reviewing.**

**Guest: (Very nice start): Thank you. :) Happy you liked it. :D**

**And the Disclaimer: Anything recognizable is not mine, it belongs to Rowling, Moffat, Doyle, etc etc. Because I forgot their names.. :3**

**Not holding up further, here is the chapter: ENJOY!**

**Chapter 2:**

"So?" John said, as soon as Hermione went downstairs with Mrs. Hudson.

"So what?" Sherlock replied without turning around.

"Well, what do you think about her?" John urged, lying back down on the couch with his book in hand.

Sherlock remained silent for another moment in which the book in John's hand felt like it would look better flying in the air towards to a particular black head of hair.

But before the impulse could be acted upon, Sherlock sighed and turned around, finally, dropping his instruments onto the floor with an unceremonious thump, and then proceeded to take his signature thinking pose on the sofa opposite John.

"There wasn't anything of much interest to deduce except, of course, her job, which doesn't seem to bother her, judging by how flippantly she replied. She obviously doesn't know me but it could simply be a matter of ignorance about celebrities since not everyone is interested in detective stories, against what you seem to think, John. Her job is a desk job which includes lots of paperwork since she has very old ink smudges on her hands, plus fresh ones too which suggests she was recently working or writing something. Her family is rich and her parents might be deceased because of the antique ring she was wearing. Her parents were dentists; her teeth were too clean, in contrast to her other physical attributes which suggest extreme carelessness. She belongs to London originally; the accent, plus, she has recently been to America, the coat she was wearing was relatively new and the logo it bore doesn't supply its goods in Britain, not to mention, it's really expensive and hard to get hold of. Her clothing choice indicates that she lived in a very cold area for a long time. Also, the 'hush-hush department' she works in, she has a high post in there but the question is where? Anyway, she works from home mostly because her feet show very much less signs of abuse than is generally caused by the weird contraptions called heels and also, she dresses quite carelessly, which looks fashionable to others but to those who observe, it is clear that her shoes or clothes have not had much care taken of them. So does the hair, by the way. All of these suggest that she cares little for public opinion."

John blinked a few times, taking it all in. For a woman who was supposed to work in a secret department, she seemed much too easy to read. He was glad though, that he managed to notice the last few details.

"She also owns a cat and a bird of some sort." Sherlock added after the moment's pause.

"Right." John said, "Are you-"

"No, I'm not going to ask Mycroft about her. Not just yet. She doesn't look like much of a threat." Sherlock replied to his barely-asked-yet question.

John closed his gaping mouth after a few seconds and decided that it was probably best to read his book instead of wondering about his flatmate's newly developed mind reading abilities.

* * *

><p>"Hello?"<p>

"Can I talk to Theodore Nott, please?"

"Theodore Cerberus Nott, who the hell was that?"

"Theo! You know I hate this. When was the last time Harry lectured you about these one-night stands?"

"Exactly. You know how I feel about this. Now listen, one more girl and consider yourself dead."

"That doesn't matter. You were drunk anyway."

-Sigh-

"Fine. Now listen here, are you free for the day?"

"Of course. I should have known. I still don't think your past relationship with Draco's secretary has anything to do with the job offer he made to you."

"Right, dropping that thought right there, you remember I told you I might be moving out of No. 12?"

"Yeah. I think Draco's not even in Britain, let alone London. Em's still back in America and you know Harry."

"Theo! You know Blaise is busy with his work and Lavender has to tackle everything for me at the Ministry."

"Oh stop making excuses Theo! I. Need. Your. Help."

"...No."

"Argh! Okay fine! Please Theo! HELP ME SHIFT!"

"You're a lucky bastard you know that?"

"This evening, around 4."

"Yeah. I think it'll take around two or three days."

"Alright. We'll do the furniture and all first and paperwork at last."

"I will talk to Connor about the Floo, don't worry."

"Right."

"Thanks buddy. You're not that bad, you know."

"Fine fine. Bye."

**Note: This chapter has been edited/Beta-d as of 25/3/14. **

**Update 16/1/14: Something extra is better than nothing extra so yeah. :D And extra is always best. :D**

**So yeah, more of a mini-chapter but then the next scene is kind of important since we have new HP characters being introduced.. By the way, is it too early for them? What do you think? Should I delay the entrance a little bit? They aren't main characters, if that helps.**

**So overall, how was this one?**


	3. Shift

**Thank you so much for the reviews again guys! :)**

**Sarah: I'm not sure if I can write a romance properly but since it doesn't necessarily interfere with the already established plans in my head, it could be done. It will have to be slow though. :) As for the character introduction, I think you've already seen it. If not, I'd suggest revisiting Chapter 2. :) Thank you for your support. :)**

**Guest: Thank You. :) That was quite expressionable (this isn't a word!). :D**

**On with it then: Enjoy!**

**Chapter 3:**

That morning, after Hermione left, John thought that would be all they would be seeing of the girl for at least a few days. But he was, of course, proven wrong, when that evening, the doorbell rang twice and Sherlock's head jerked up from his hunched position on the couch.

He frowned as Sherlock stared at the door of their flat in undisguised curiosity. John wondered who it was that had Sherlock's attention even before they had entered.

"Mind that part over there." Came the slightly familiar pant of Hermione's voice and it sounded like she was accompanied by someone else too.

"I'm minding it very well Mia. You mind your little hobbit foot on that dent." said an unrecognizable, slightly accented, but distinctly male voice.

John shared a look with Sherlock and felt satisfaction pour into his mind on seeing the equally confused look mirrored on his face. Though he did shake it off remarkably soon.

He quickly opened the door, guessing they would need the help. He was right, and greeted with a sight of a frowning Hermione ushering a dark-haired, handsome guy, into the flat, both holding rather large bags and Hermione carrying a few smaller bags as well.

What caught his attention though, was something along Hermione's left forearm- she had pushed the sleeves up, and if he wasn't wrong, there was some sort of tattoo or scar just near her wrist, spelling something, though he wasn't sure because the next moment, it looked like the sleeves had slipped down again. Hermione didn't even seem to have noticed the little change, so he guessed it must have been chance.

"Oh. Hi, John. Thanks." Hermione smiled politely as she entered, dragging the bag with her and sighing loudly at dropping it.

"Hi Hermione. So, you're.." John gestured uselessly at the bags, leaving his sentence hanging.

"Yeah. I'm.. I'm sorry, you don't really mind me shifting my stuff today, do you? I'm really sorry I totally forgot to check with you guys." Hermione rambled, looking truly apologetic.

"Of course not. I mean, I don't mind at all. Don't know about-"

John was cut off by a beep from directly behind him. He almost squeaked in alarm but managed shortly, spinning around in time to see that Sherlock was frowning at his phone.

The look in his eyes when he looked up at him, told John that there was a case.

"Right. I don't mind you moving your stuff and I'm sure, without doubt, John doesn't either. But now we'll have to run, John and I. We'll catch up on this amazing rendezvous later on. I hope you didn't expect any help from us, Ms. Granger and anyway, it was at too short a notice." Sherlock rambled in a single breath, catching his coat and hat in the same one and was almost out of the door in the second one, John struggling to catch behind.

"Sherlock! At least say hi properly!" John bellowed as Sherlock made to move down the stairs.

"Fine. Hi Hermione. Hi Stranger. It was great seeing you puff and pant carrying up those few bags and Mr. Stranger, you really need to work on hiding your effects of alcohol-fondness from last night. Really, learn from Hermione, I can't tell what she ate for breakfast. Except, maybe she ate nothing seeing as she ate two burgers and a plate of spaghetti for lunch. Nice appetite you have, maybe it's because of the malnutrition bout you had three years ago. Anyway, your eating habits won't help me in solving the case so now I'd like to leave, thank you! Come along, John!"

And he was dashing down the staircase with that creepy grin of his still on his face.

* * *

><p>Hermione sighed in relief and dumped herself on the couch for a moment where Theo joined her.<p>

"Thank Merlin! I thought they'd never leave. Hats off to Fleur's timing!" she sighed and stretched languidly, which was interrupted by Theo poking her sides, where he knew she was ticklish.

"Ow! You dumb jerk! What was that for?!" Hermione said angrily, rubbing her sides and sitting up again.

"You do know that the set up won't hold him off for long. The bloke's creepy. With all that you told me about vampires, I think he might be one." Theo said, frowning slightly and thinking back to Sherlock character's long ramble. Definitely creepy.

Hermione only snorted.

"He is creepy. I even thought he was wizard. Wait till you see what weird experiments he carries on in here. Luna would love it too." Hermione said, rolling her eyes slightly and finally getting off the couch.

"No, really. With all those deduction skills, I think he might even solve it in half an hour." Theo said conversationally, as he started pulling out the miniature lots of furniture and other items which made up Hermione's definition of furniture. They only had to enlarge the shrunk versions and they would be done for the day.

"And he will know it too." Hermione replied, dusting off some books.

"How did he even know that I was drunk last night? And Hermione, I think we agreed that paperwork was last on the list?"

"Yes, paperwork is last, when did I disagree?"

"Well, duh." Theo pointed to the books in Hermione's hand and raised an eyebrow.

Hermione just huffed and made a gesture of throwing said books towards the wizard while continuing her conversation.

"And Theo, he actually is right. You have that jacket on from last night which you borrowed from the pub's worker, no doubt, it has the logo on the back. Plus, your forehead is still sweaty and you were almost wheezing after carrying those bags-"

"As if you weren't pretending that there's a dead hippogriff in there.-"

"-and you also flinched at every slightly-louder-than-normal sound. You're also squinting after every few moments and since it's half past four in the evening and you are conscious, it means that you got drunk last night."

"..."

"And of course, the jacket stinks too."

"You.. you are like him, aren't you?"

"Nah. I don't like to show off."

**Note: This chapter has been edited/Beta-d as of 25/3/14.**

**So? How was this one? Not much prissy or anything?**

**It was slightly difficult writing Theo, but as Hermione pointed out, there was no one else free for the job. :D**


	4. Distraction

**Another one! :) I think this is the longest I've written till now but I hope you like it. :D Reviews:**

**Sarah: Yup. Theodore Nott, fellow Slytherin in Harry's year and how they came to be friends, maybe I'll write a one-shot? It'll be fun :D And I'm happy the characters are being brought out okay, I mean I kind of expected them to be lacking in some field of my description. lol**

**embir: Thank you so much! I'm really happy you like it! :D And see, I updated within 24 hours of your review! :D Thank you so much again! :)**

**And also, I kind of reupdated(?) Chapter 2, don't know if you noticed, it's not much though, rereading is your wish. Please do visit the bottom of my profile though, it's kinda important.**

**On with it: ENJOY!**

**Chapter 4:**

"What's wrong?" John asked as soon as he and Sherlock were seated safely in the back of a taxi, taking them back to the subway, from where they could safely take another cab back to the flat.

Sherlock had been frowning the entire time, ever since they had set foot at the crime scene- a young man had been found dead on his own couch. He seemed to have been watching TV while he appeared to have stabbed himself. He had solved the case within fifteen minutes- since the door of the apartment had been locked from inside, no one could have left (the other doors and windows were bolted too). The reports had said that there was no kind of medical problem- no history of drugs, just some amount of alcohol in the body. Sherlock deduced that the drug had been mixed with a rare chemical which was found in the human intestines and was added to his drink, which he seemed to have consumed two days before. The only sign of the drug was laziness and most victims ignored it. The speciality was that it initiated a self-destruction phenomenon of such a kind that the victim felt he was hallucinating while he performed the likely acts which would take his own life.

Sherlock had explained it all in detail to Lestrade and then had kept mum about everything until they were seated in the taxi, where he sighed softly.

"Something was wrong. It looked too easy. Everything was too properly and easily placed, just… just sitting there innocently waiting for me to come and deduce. It was like a puzzle especially laid out in the open for me,'specially for me. Like, I don't know, like someone knew my style. And, that drug- it's not easy to get hold of, John. It's only available on special order. Special order. Only someone like Mycroft or the likes could get hold of that thing. I think it was a distraction. Or a set up."

"But then, how would the killer know, Sherlock? How would he know exactly that you'd be called in this time or… or if the body would be found at this time? I mean if it's a distraction, then from what exactly is it?" John argued, this time actually thinking that Sherlock's theory was a bit too far-fetched.

"You're right." Sherlock said after a few beats of heavy silence.

"And how it pains you to admit it, I can see very well."

Sherlock grinned at him then, his mind likely distracted. 'Well, time to work it properly then.' John thought before taking the dive.

"Did you notice it today? That scar?" he asked, hoping Sherlock would know what he was referring to.

"Ah yes!" his friend's face twisted in morbid curiosity and concentration, "I remember, I only saw the one on the wrist for a moment but it looked more like a scar. I even thought it was a tattoo of some sort with writing and all, but no, it was a scar. Pity we won't have a closer look at them any time soon though, since Hermione's been wearing long sleeves all the times I saw her. I do wonder where she got them; it's fascinating, isn't it?"

"Them? As in, plural? I only saw the one on the wrist." John asked, suddenly sitting straighter. No matter how hard he tried, he always missed something or the other.

"There was one on the neck. It was completely uncovered so I got a good look at it. A knife. Isn't it interesting John, that our newest flatmate is barely twenty-five and has already been held on knife-point at least once in her life?"

"I don't think it's that interesting." John replied, trying to sound off-hand-ish but Sherlock stared back at him with mirth shining in those blue-grey eyes of his, until he relented. "Oh fine, it's not very interesting in your way, just a bit curious."

"And the boy- he belongs to a rich family, spoilt in his childhood but most likely, something dreadful happened in his teenage years, because of which he had to take up on the drinking. He's not necessarily a drunk, only has been drinking since he was young. Also, most likely didn't have a proper childhood or homely atmosphere. Oh, and did you notice, he also had an antique sort of ring on his finger, not like Hermione, it just looked like an heirloom. And his origins are definitely from Italy; the accent was distinct. But.."

"But?" John prompted, admittedly not having noticed all of that.

"Well, don't you think something's off?" Sherlock asked with a frown, looking at John with concern. About what, he didn't know.

"Umm, no?" John replied uncertainly.

Sherlock exhaled, looking irritated, and pressed the bridge of his nose with his finger and thumb.

"Well, I do, John. Something just feels missing. Though I don't know what, yet. And now that she's going to be around, I guess we can easily find out." Sherlock said, folding his hands in his typical thinking pose and staring at the seat cover in front of his face.

John immediately felt that he would have to improve his distraction tactics if he wanted to live a normal and peaceful life. Though it was obviously impossible with Sherlock, John personally felt that this Hermione Granger character was something more than what scratched the surface.

Her presence just, kind of, made him feel on high alert. As, inhumane, for the lack of a better word, Sherlock seemed to behave, John hardly thought the detective would have any of those feelings against Hermione Granger. Except, of course, curiosity in learning her life story.

* * *

><p>The sight that greeted them when they reached back home at 221B, was really not what John had been expecting. Well, he had expected everything a little more messy, at least.<p>

Hermione was sitting on the couch, inspecting what looked like pancakes. And the unknown boy was fiddling with another one with a knife. Cutting it open or something?

Hermione looked up as the door opened and smiled warmly at seeing them.

"Ah, you're back. Exactly in time actually, I just made pancakes." She said, getting up from the couch and quickly rushing to the kitchen. Her blue button down shirt's sleeves were drawn over her arms and she had a red and gold thick scarf hanging around her neck.

"I don't think we were properly introduced." The dark haired man said, abandoning the knife and piece of food, and stood up from his place to shake John's hand. "Theodore Nott. Nice to meet you. You've got a great place here, by the way."

John smiled uncertainly. What kind of weird people were they suddenly meeting these days, who seemed to take an immediate liking to their unorganised little flat-laboratory?

"John Watson. Ex- Army Doctor. Good to meet you too."

"Sherlock Holmes." Sherlock said, thrusting his hand out for the man to shake.

Theo looked uncertain for a second for shaking Sherlock's hand firmly and nodding at the detective.

"We'll just change in a bit and be back." John said as Sherlock left the room before him without any prologue.

John indulged himself in a quick shower, while smelling freshly baked pancakes and soon returned to the living room where Hermione was already back with another plate and tea.

"Did you try that trick with the insides?" Theo had been asking and Hermione returned his question with an irritated glance and by plucking the knife out of his hands.

"I really don't like that trick, when will you get that in your fat head?" Hermione replied, flipping through the book John had been reading earlier that day.

"Oi! No part of my amazing body is fat! Except-"

He was graciously silenced by a pancake being shoved into his mouth by a ticked-off looking Hermione.

"Have some." Hermione offered politely and John took one, even though he thought she looked kind of scary since her hair seemed to stand on end, a bit.

Sherlock entered then and took a pancake, silently offered by Hermione.

"So you two are friends?" Sherlock asked innocently.

"Yeah." Came the scuffed reply from both the sides.

"How did you-"

"Mate, I heard you've got frog's eyes in here?" Theo asked suddenly, obviously not having paid attention to what Sherlock was saying.

"Under that." John pointed quickly before Sherlock could protest.

Theo had retrieved the substance in question from the pointed place and was inspecting them closely. "Ah, these are the normal ones, aren't they? Can I borrow them? Thanks." He said, moving to the kitchen without waiting for any reply or a backward glance.

"Don't look so shocked Mr. Watson." Hermione chuckled, "He's basically a chef and he also loves experimenting with his ingredients."

"They're edible?" John asked, almost gagging on the pancake.

"Yes." Hermione laughed, "Though I made the pancakes so they're safe."

"Are you going to stay the night Ms. Granger?" Sherlock asked unexpectedly, though that was only for John, Hermione must have thought it to be polite on the man's part.

"No, actually, my paperwork is still at the old place and half of it is at work and this brat's got an appointment tomorrow. I bet he doesn't even remember it." She replied, finally placing the book back and hollered loudly towards the kitchen "THEO!"

"I'm coming, Rowdy." The boy muttered impatiently.

"We're going?" he asked, seeing Hermione standing up.

"Yeah. Do you remember that appointment tomorrow?"

Theo's eyes widened comically in shock and he slapped a hand to his forehead. "Shit! Oh NO!"

"Exactly." Hermione said, mostly to John, and departed, after promising to meet them tomorrow at 4 in the evening, then following Theo closely as he ran down the stairs.

"Don't touch the eyes in the kettle!" John heard Theo shout before the front door slammed downstairs.

As soon as that happened, he was called by Sherlock hissing his name from the window.

"John!" Sherlock said, pointing outside. The unmistakable mass of Hermione's hair disappeared into an expensive looking black car, which soon zoomed at a relatively high speed through the traffic.

"That's Benz S-Guard 600. Impressive. It's not even normally seen outside a palace. High security car." Sherlock whistled almost inaudibly after that.

"Quite rich then." John agreed quietly, not really knowing what to say.

Sherlock went back to his- doing something and John decided that he wanted to catch up on the blog since he hadn't really got much to do for quite some time.

In hindsight, John never expected that mentioning that a Hermione Granger now sharing a flat with him and the famous detective would have earned such an extreme response.

**Note: This chapter has been edited/Beta-d as of 25/3/14.**

**TADA! How was this? Is anyone excited about what's going to happen? Hermione isn't even in yet and John will be at his wit's end soon, Sherlock following closely, lol. :D**

**Anyway, the next chapter won't be what you think it will be, zzz. :D**

**Please review! I love reading your opinions on this! And it helps me to write sooner and update faster, not to mention, my day goes really well. :)**

**Oh, and before I forget, if you guys want any specific scenes or anything, please give me a prompt and I'll try my best to include it! I haven't done it before but I think it'll be fun! :D PM me or mention it in the review, your wish entirely! :)**

**PS: DO NOT FORGET TO VISIT MY PROFILE. SOMETHING IMPORTANT AT THE END. THANK YOU :D**


	5. Paperwork

**I'm really really sorry for the gap this time but life got in the way and I had to postpone this chapter. But, on the other hand, I'm so so happy with the reviews! Guys, thank you so much! All other notes at the end, so here we go: Enjoy!**

**Chapter 5:**

The next evening, Hermione arrived with Theo, along with about fifty cardboard boxes.

"John! Could you please open the door for me?" Hermione's voice shouted from downstairs, as the front door was thrown open with a smash. It was becoming quite the ritual.

"Alright!" John shouted back and quickly opened the door, just as two figures covered with boxes entered inside. A head of black hair was visible from behind one but Hermione's head was hidden completely from view.

"That's a lot of paperwork." He commented, as they put down the boxes on the floor. Theo cast a look around, searching for Sherlock, John assumed, and heaved a small sigh on noting his absence.

"This is just the home part, Lavender's going to bring in the office work for today." Hermione replied, already out of the door, Theo following closely.

John was thankful that Sherlock was out visiting Molly, he should have been suspicious but the detective had assured him that he needed to replace the frog's eyes that Theo had mutilated. How he had done that, John didn't know, since he hadn't dared to touch them since yesterday, or the kettle, for that matter.

It took them about an hour to shift all the boxes from Theo's car to the flat, and then to Hermione's room which proved Sherlock's theory that Hermione genrally worked form home. John was completely thrown by the size of the boot of the car; there was no way that all those boxes would have fit inside it. He didn't get a look at the insides of the black car, so he wasn't sure about that option too.

After the shifting was done though, Hermione disappeared into her room, sorting it all, probably, and Theo, after discovering that the frog's eyes were done with, went down to Mrs. Hudson, dragging John along, convinced that Hermione needed some time alone in the flat.

Mrs. Hudson was as welcoming as ever and agreed to make some complex dessert (the name of which John couldn't remember) for Theo- the man had a bad case of puppy dog eyes.

"So, where were you posted during the war, Mr. Watson?" he asked, as Mrs. Hudson went to the kitchen.

"Afghanistan. And please call me John." John replied, glad to have a talk with someone who was as normal as he would find in his abnormal life.

"Alright, John. How was the War? Were you a soldier or a leader?"

"Actually, I was a doctor."

"An army doctor! Amazing. I did that work too for some time in my life."

"Oh, you did?" John asked, thoroughly surprised. Theo didn't look like a person who would have been involved in a war.

"Oh, don't look so shocked. I must not look like it, but I am quite a fighter." Theo said, chuckling slightly.

"The Second Iraq War? What station?"

"Oh no, not the Second Iraq War, it was a Civil War in our home state. You wouldn't know about it, it didn't hit the news since it was more like a Cold War which ended with a huge battle. I wasn't even affected much but we had casualties, many of them, in fact."

"Someone related to you?"

"Yeah, my Dad. He was in the centre of it. Not on the clean side either, mind you. But we survived, and that's what matters."

Just as John was about to ask if Hermione had anything to do with it too, there was a loud knock on the front door.

"John, could you please get that for me?" Mrs. Hudson said from the kitchen and John got up and shuffled over quietly to the door.

The woman on the other side looked like an office worker from her uniform: a white shirt tucked into a grey office skirt and a large black overcoat. She had slightly curly brown hair (nothing compared to Hermione) tied into a neat ponytail and was clutching a handbag, along with a large bag on her shoulder. What caught his attention though, was a large faded scar along the right side of her face: it was deep and ran down from the side of her eye to under her ear, disappearing to the back of her neck.

"Hello, how can I help you?" John asked, looking right into her eyes, trying not to stare at the scar.

"Um, is Hermione here?" she said in a very low tone, and looked around her, as if she was afraid someone would see her or something.

"Are you Lavender?" John replied, remembering Hermione mention her.

"Yes!" the woman exclaimed thankfully and quickly entered inside, closing the door as well.

"She's upstairs. Do you need help with the bag?" John asked, but woman- Lavender- shook her head and shot him a smile.

"It's fine. I'll manage, thanks." She said, and went up the stairs.

John retreated back to the kitchen where Theo had been humouring Mrs. Hudson, probably telling a story or something. His attention shifted to John as he entered though.

"Was that Lavender?" he asked and John nodded silently, taking his place on the counter.

"Good, now I don't have to worry about keeping the beast under control." Theo said, and offered John the dessert which Mrs. Hudson had made for them.

John laughed lightly as the evening passed and he went back to his flat, while Theo checked out the bakery with Mrs. Hudson. Sherlock came back soon enough, carrying a large case which he hid in his own room, and John filled him in on the arrival of the new woman, Lavender, and his conversation with Theo. Sherlock listened attentively and started fiddling with his laptop, probably thinking about the developments.

After about half an hour, Lavender emerged from Hermione's room and introduced herself to John and Sherlock, and asked John if he would like a break from cooking for one day. John happily agreed and Lavender went downstairs, just as Hermione emerged from her room.

Her hair looked charged and there were circles under her eyes that John hadn't noticed before.

"Good evening, John. Sherlock." She greeted and flopped down on the couch beside John, putting her legs on the table before her.

"Moving is a bloody menace for my brain." She groaned, clutching her forehead.

"That's because it can't store enough information required for the quick transportation of data so you have to write it down, so there's more papers to take care of." Sherlock said suddenly.

"No, it's because I choose to delete the information from my brain and write it down on paper so that it's easily accessible to others and they don't have to hound me about it all the time." Hermione replied evenly.

John went to his room and brought a painkiller, and handed it to Hermione, "This'll help with the pain." He said and she thankfully accepted it.

Lavender entered then, followed by Theo.

"I'm making dinner tonight!" he exclaimed happily and retreated to the kitchen, while Lavender sat on the sofa, busy with her mobile.

"Lav, make sure he doesn't put anything inedible in there. I don't want us all to end up dead because he decided to experiment with the food." Hermione said, her eyes closed.

"Aye Aye Captain." Lavender mock saluted and went into the kitchen too, and John felt some relief melt into him; at least he was sure he wouldn't die by food poisoning today.

Dinner was a quiet affair; the food was good and Theo was definitely an exceptional cook, John wasn't sure he had tasted such nice Italian even in a restaurant. Lavender and Hermione were working on a file which they had brought to the table (they were dining with Mrs. Hudson), and Sherlock was staring and eavesdropping unabashedly, while Mrs. Hudson seemed content to just enjoy the food, Theo was talking non-stop about what he liked in the medical field while simultaneously questioning John about various methods and prospects.

Theo and Lavender departed after that. Hermione was sitting in the living room with a file and Sherlock was in the kitchen doing something. John was a bit worried about the latter but his book was quite interesting.

Halfway through the next hour, Hermione suddenly cursed and grabbed her phone.

"Oh shit! How in Mer- How did I forget him?!" she exclaimed and John put aside his book for once.

"What is it?"

"I forgot Crookshanks!"

**Note: This chapter has been edited/Beta-d as of 25/3/14.**

**Review answers:**

**sethiel: Thank you so much! I'm glad you like it and here is your update. :) As for Romance, I guess so but I'm totally undecided with the pairing so no offence! :)**

**Sarah: Totally agreed. And I'm glad you're enjoying it. :D Theo isn't one of the famous ones, but he was needed in the story. :D He has some special work in the plot in future. :)**

**Guest: (Thanks for reading, I know who you are :D ) I'm glad you enjoyed, Zissy. :D**

**For other references, updates, prompts, extra stuff links, especially prompts, please visit my profile. Some info on a related site is at the bottom. (My profile is totally messed up and I'll try to restore it to proper soon)**

**Thank you again for reading guys, I totally love to read your reviews! Do let me know how you liked this one. :D**

**PS: Before I totally forget, I'm having trouble in searching for a Beta for this story. Guys, if any of you know anyone who would be up for it or interested, please please please please let me know. Most preferably, PM me here, please. I'm in serious need of one and I'm not able to find it. Thanks so much in advance!**

**PSS: I have exams starting in a month so the updates might be a bit messy. That sucks, I know.**


	6. Crookshanks

**Hello all, I'm here with the next one! I totally loved your response to the last chapter, it got the maximum no. of reviews till now- 14! Which beats 13 for Chapter 1 and 4. :D (Yes, I do count them obsessively)**

**Anyway, review answers:**

**Guest: The cat is going to be trouble for Sherlock, don't know about love or hate! ;) :D**

**Guest: I will try and involve more Sherlock characters, like you asked! :D Personally, I like Molly Hooper too. :D And Moriarty's cuteness... :D**

**AnimagiPotter: Thank you! I'm totally glad you like it and here is your update! J**

**Sarah: Thanks. :D That was basically for fluff and fur, there's got to be a cat in it. :D**

**Kay: Thanks for reading and approving (I know you would have found it anyway ;) ).**

**Now, here it goes: Enjoy!**

**Chapter 6:**

Hermione had scanned her phone for about five seconds, when she stopped and just stared at the screen, biting her lip in what looked like indecision. After one excruciating minute, she seemed to make her decision and pressed something, and then put the phone next to her ear.

John watched in undisguised curiosity as the woman tapped her fingers unconsciously, waiting for whomever it was on the other line to pick the phone. Somewhere at the back of his mind, he remembered the first day, when Sherlock had announced that Hermione had a cat.

He also took the time to notice that Hermione's phone was no simple one, either, it was a smartphone. Better than the one Sherlock currently had.

Hermione suddenly straightened as she begun talking on the phone. Even though John could only hear Hermione's side of the conversation, it was enough for him to get the gist of it.

"Hey, Drake, you weren't asleep were you?"

"And you're back in London, I suppose?"

"Well, you remember I told you I might be moving out of Grimmauld Place?"

"No, no, all the work is already done. Seriously though, you're all so lazy, Theo helped me with it but he kept whining about it all day."

"Well, you see, I… uh, kind of, um you know there were many things to take care of, right? And I kind of forgot something."

"No, it's not really heavy, you can even transport it on the bike."

"Crookshanks."

"But I'm so tired already! I still have to prepare those reports for Cresswell and Stigh, and Lavender and Theo just went back an hour ago, I can't disturb them again. You're the only option!"

"Yes you are, Draco! Harry's out in the middle of nowhere, Em's in America, Luna's out of town, and I can't very well contact Blaise or Neville as they're busy with their own work, plus Ron and Ginny won't even understand the address."

"I did not mean it like that you know it."

"Do you want Crooks to be stuck in that place all alone for the whole night?"

"Fabulous! I'm at 221B, Baker's Street."

"Yup, I'll be working."

"Thank you! I'll make you pancakes next time!"

"Bye!"

Hermione heaved a huge sigh as she slumped back into the sofa, throwing her file on the table and resting her legs on top of it.

"Crookshanks is my cat. I got him when I was 13. And we both love each other." She provided, looking at John through her mess of hair, which had got charged while she had been talking.

That had been one weird thing John had noticed about Hermione - she was very expressive. All her moods, frustration, happiness, annoyance - they all seemed to showcase on her person very openly. Be it through her hair or her eyes.

John nodded in understanding at her - after all, he had known that she owned a cat.

"Who was that on the phone? I mean, someone is coming here to drop Crookshanks off, right?" John asked, gesturing towards her phone.

"That was a friend. He's been out of town for the last couple of days but he's back now. He's the only one who'll be free at this hour, as I just pointed out to him." Hermione replied, stretching a bit more on the sofa.

At that moment, Sherlock marched into the room, wearing his night clothes, and holding a cup of something which steamed. John wouldn't dare to call it tea.

"Hermione, do you have to work all night?" Sherlock asked, placing himself next to the window, while sipping on his drink.

"Yup. I'll go to my room after Crookshanks is here, though." She replied, picking up her file and flipping through it again.

Sherlock nodded and didn't speak for either a while, during which John picked up his book again.

"There's some coffee in the kitchen." Sherlock said after about ten minutes.

John looked up from his book to stare at the detective. Sherlock had never made coffee, willingly, for anyone except John. That too, when he insisted too much. Should he be taking that as a sign that Sherlock was ready to accept Hermione as a part of their -

Their what, exactly?

John unwillingly looked up at Hermione, putting a brake in his thoughts for his sanity's sake. She had been looking at Sherlock with a deadpan stare, and then at John, after which she shrugged her shoulder slightly.

"Sure."

Hermione got up from her place and brought another steaming mug of, what Sherlock claimed was, coffee, in her hands. She sipped on it slightly, and then, sipped again.

"It's nice." She commented, putting it down on the table and tucking herself back into the sofa, then picked it back up along with the file.

"I added Butterscotch too." Sherlock added after a moment.

"Ah, that's why it tastes better." Hermione hummed satisfactorily.

Butterscotch was something far better and less dangerous than what John had been expecting from Sherlock. As it turns out, it actually was coffee.

Silence settled over, and the only sounds were the occasional flicking of pages by John or Hermione or Sherlock slurping the coffee too loudly or cushioned random sounds from the busy road outside.

It was another half an hour later that Sherlock spoke again.

"Does the stranger who's coming to drop your cat have blond hair?" he said, not looking away from the window.

Hermione looked up in apparent surprise and put away her file again. "Yeah. I reckon he's here." She said, and departed downstairs.

There was the unmistakable sound of the door opening and heavy footsteps accompanied by Hermione's slightly lighter footfalls.

Hermione was carrying something huge, about the size of three footballs, and with yellow fur. John was unable to see the face of Hermione's pet, so he turned his attention to the stranger accompanying Hermione.

The man, as Sherlock had said, had blond hair, but they were the whitest shade of blond John had ever seen. White-blond, they called it, which John had never had the chance to see first-hand until today.

The man was strongly built, with considerable muscle and he had sharp features with deep grey eyes which were currently drawn into slits.

"There." The man, Draco, John's brain supplied, spat, pushing away the tail of the furball in Hermione's hands, as it brushed his dark green jumper.

Despite his general appearance, the man wore a costly, but faded and old, probably a favourite, green jumper, which had a yellow coloured ball on the front and 'Malfoy 7' on the back in a silver colour.

Hermione rolled her eyes at him and deposited the furball on the sofa where she had been sitting earlier, from where it promptly stood up and jumped down, making a weird noise. John wanted to keep his eyes on the beast, but they travelled to the beast's mistress.

Hermione gave the stranger an impromptu hug of Thanks, while the stranger looked uncomfortable, but catching John's eye, rolled his eyes in a manner which could only be called fond.

"Thank you so much Draco! I would have had to make an extra trip back to the place if not for you!" Hermione said, releasing Draco.

Draco, in turn, rolled his eyes again and moved away from Hermione towards John.

"I'm Draco Malfoy, nice to meet you." He said, shaking John's hand.

"John Watson." John smiled back, at least the man was polite.

"Sherlock Holmes." Sherlock said, moving away from the window and shaking Draco's hand, himself.

"Beware of the beast. They're known to cause trouble and make life hell for people, you have my sympathy." Draco said with a smirk aimed at Hermione, who scoffed in return.

John knew the statement was meant for them, but he wasn't sure if the man was referring to Crookshanks or to Hermione. He hoped it was the latter, actually.

"Well, I hope we meet in better circumstances because I have to go now. Goodnight." Draco said and moved out of the door, Hermione following him.

John made to sit back on the couch but stood up immediately as he felt something more than cushions underneath him.

The furry cat made a suspicious hissing noise and seemed to glare at John from his flattened face.

John decided that he would be better to stay away from the thing until Hermione came back.

Just then, Sherlock made a strange noise from next to the window. "That is a Ducati." He said, half-whistling.

John went over to inspect and saw Draco sitting on an expensive-looking white motorbike - it was flashy and seemed to be similar to the ones they had in advertisements.

"It is, again, really expensive, and on the phone, Hermione said that he could transport the thing on the bike, which means he has more than one means of transport and I'm pretty sure it's not a bicycle."

John stared for some more time as Hermione and Draco talked and finally, after about five minutes, he left.

He was itching to ask Sherlock about the blond-haired man, but he knew that they had to wait for Hermione to leave.

As he thought that, Hermione returned to the room and flashed them a small smile, though John was sure that she could figure out that they had been watching her from the window.

She made to grab Crookshanks from the couch but the cat made a hissing sound again, though it sounded much like disapproval and annoyance this time, and jumped off the couch and marched straight into Hermione's room, with his tail held high.

Hermione shook her head with a fond smile and went back to her file on the sofa.

The cat had one hell of an attitude.

**Note: This chapter has been edited/Beta-d as of 26/3/14.**

**Happy! Details about what Sherlock thinks of Draco on the next chapter, along with public response to John's blog! I'm soo excited!**

**I'm still accepting prompts by the way, so PM me or the website mentioned in the profile (I've cleaned it by the way).**

**Please review! What do you think about Draco and all, even though his personality hasn't been brought out well enough in this chapter, but I do plan on expanding!**

**Hope you liked this one!**

**PS: Nataly SkyPot, can I just thank you for your reviews, they are the best so far. J**


	7. Papa - Razi

**15 reviews for the previous one! Just ONE short of 70! I'm so excited best exam-finishing gift ever! THANK YOU! And more than 200 follows! More than 100 favourites! I officially love all of you! Each and every one of you!**

**Can't stress how lovely it is to open up your inbox and see almost 70 reviews on the story, so many favourites and follows!- thank you guys SO much again!**

**Here are some to whom I couldn't reply:**

**Dasserk: Wow, that is a great idea Dasserk, I am totally going to take that up in the near future. Luna is also a part of the little family Hermione has on the other side, so I think it can be done and it'd be amazing. :) Thank you for your review but I would suggest that you PM me suggestions or prompts next time. Thanks again! :)**

**Guest: Thank you. I'm happy you do. :)**

**sethiel: Thank you, I'm glad you liked it, hope this one keeps up too! :)**

**Sarah: Thank you! I'm relieved about that part, honestly, I thought there might be bad reactions to Draco's presence or something but we need to understand that War changes people and Draco's going to be a huge example of that. In fact, many of my characters are. :) Thank you for reviewing, you're a sweetheart. :)**

**Not making you wait more- here we go. Enjoy!**

**Chapter 7:**

John read his book for an hour or so, after which Hermione decided to follow Crookshanks into her room and he heard the lock click into place.

He immediately turned to Sherlock, who was on the sofa and had been resting in his classic thinking pose.

"I assume you're looking at me that way because you'd like my thoughts on Draco Malfoy." Sherlock said, not bothering to move from his place.

"Your deductions," John corrected, "and yes, I'd like to know."

Sherlock cast a glance at the closed door of Hermione's room. "Don't worry, it's locked." John supplied and Sherlock huffed out an "I know" before resuming his pose and starting his parade of deductions in his usual whirlwind manner.

"He's a businessman: the watch was a costly professional one he probably forgot to take off, he was part of a sports team in his teens: the jumper was quite old and faded and had the air of being used overly much, though I didn't recognise the game or the ball featured on the front, belongs to a rich family: old, antique and costly ring on the finger of left hand - just like Hermione and Theo - I wonder if they have a society of old English families or something, had a lipstick mark around the ear which means he's in a relationship and Hermione neither knows about it nor is concerned or she would have subconsciously noted that the perfume had a feminine tinge to it - jealous people tend to do that, plus she didn't mention anyone when she talked to him but we can't be sure about the talk downstairs, but higher chances are that she doesn't know so our guy has a hidden girlfriend, how interesting. Anyway, he lives in or around_, judging by the time it took him to get here."

John frowned a bit as he realised that he had picked up probably most of the things except the girlfriend part and his location. He was, however, glad to find a glitch in Sherlock's deductions and happily pointed it out to him, knowing it would annoy the detective to no ends.

"I think you got the location wrong."

"What do you mean?" Sherlock looked up from his position in surprise at John's innocently smiling face.

"I think I was very clear with my statement." John replied cheekily, enjoying it a bit too much.

"John." Sherlock warned, his eyebrow twitching.

"You didn't consider the time it would have taken from Malfoy's place to pick up Crookshanks." John said, in an amused, taunting voice.

Sherlock's eyes grew wide and he blinked once, then twice, and then went off to his bedroom hurriedly, to search for something, most probably.

* * *

><p>The next morning, Hermione was gone before John woke up. And since he woke up at 9, and Sherlock had been up before him, he asked the detective if he had seen Hermione.<p>

"Do look around and deduce that for once, John. But since you've just woken up and you can hardly see, let alone deduce, I'll just inform you that there's a note on the table." Was the answer he got from Sherlock.

The note was addressed to both of them and said that Hermione had made breakfast - tea and toast, loads of it with porridge and eggs, and that she would be back by 5 in the evening. She'd also said that she expected to get to know them both better at supper, if they were up for a bit of a chit-chat.

Personally, John liked the idea, and he and Sherlock spent the day tracking down a murder victim, for a change, since the murderer Greg's team had managed to catch claimed to have committed no murder, and Sherlock seemed to agree with him.

"So I heard you have a new flatmate living with you?" Greg asked, as John waited outside the old church while Sherlock was inside, working.

John looked over in surprise at the DI to find him squinting at the road in front of him.

"Yeah, yes, she moved in yesterday. How'd you find out?" John asked, curious for once when Greg didn't meet his eyes.

"Nah, desk sergeant said you mentioned it in the blog. I was just, uh a bit worried." The inspector replied, still not looking at him.

"Right. Worried about?"

Greg looked at him with what John could comprehend as panic for a moment, but then averted his gaze quickly.

"About, uh Sherlock, of course. How's he taking to it?" Greg replied.

John tried his best to ignore the feeling that something was wrong with Greg today, and nodded to Greg's question.

"Yeah, he's taken it surprisingly well so far, behaved nicely-ish."

Greg nodded and scuffed his shoe, looking down, and then opened his mouth to say something, just when Sherlock came out of the building, rambling something about the scene at top speed.

* * *

><p>Greg's weird behaviour remained on John's mind until they reached back at Baker Street, where there were more than a few cars parked around, and something felt definitely wrong.<p>

Either it was John's mind playing tricks on him or there were just a little bit more people on the road than usual. Sherlock seemed to pay no mind to it and simply disappeared into the flat, and John followed closely.

It was about an hour or so later that the doorbell rang in an unusual, hurried manner - three rings at once, like someone was too eager to get inside.

John came out of the kitchen where he had been working on tea arrangements, and saw Sherlock meet his gaze with a surprisingly worried one of his own.

"That's not a client." John stated the obvious and almost flinched when Sherlock opened his mouth to make the "excellent deduction, John" comment, but the front door opened at the same time and also slammed shut in record time. John was confused as he recognized the weight of Hermione's footfalls as she climbed upstairs, relatively fast and hurried this time around, which was unusual, not that there was a usual to begin with but whatever.

John could only recognize the woman from her mane of bushy hair since other than that, she was covered from head to toe with some sort of clothing- except her eyes, which looked furious if John ever knew it.

"Who?!" she bellowed out loud, "Who freaking did this?!"

Hermione unwound the scarf from her face and threw it on the table, her bag, coat and a large hat following pursuit. Her hair looked fluffier than ever and her face was contorted in what John could identify as anger and frustration.

She threw herself upon the couch just as John stood, and Sherlock watched Hermione like a hawk.

She seemed to be breathing heavily as Crookshanks suddenly jumped on her lap, nudging her with his head. She took a glance at him before turning on Sherlock and John.

"What are they doing here?" she all but spat, her face turning towards the door, signalling something - or someone - they couldn't see, apparently outside the door.

"Who?" Sherlock said, walking to the window with long strides and his brow furrowed. John followed him, to see a horde of people dressed in robes, or something similar, crowding very near to the entrance of the flat. He remembered how he had thought that the street looked more crowded than normal in the afternoon but this seemed to be nothing compared to then. These people were probably hiding or something at that time.

There was a knock on the door at the same time and Mrs. Hudson entered, looking hassled and a bit confused.

"Hermione dear, what's the matter?" she said, looking questioningly at John and Sherlock when the girl rubbed her forehead tiredly, before standing up from her place.

"I'm really sorry for that, Mrs. Hudson." She said, starting to collect her things as she spoke, and looked apologetically at the older woman and towards her flatmates by the window, "Well, the thing is, the media wasn't supposed to know that I've, uhh... moved here. You see, my umm... job at the Ministry made me a bit of a celeb with the paparazzi and before here, I was going kind of incognito for them. Only a few people know my location and these guys weren't supposed to know, you see?"

She turned urgent suddenly and her brow furrowed in concentration and she looked at John suspiciously. "Wait, I hope you guys didn't mention this to anybody who could have caught hold of these people?"

John exchanged a glance with Sherlock, who shrugged in the universal I-don't-know gesture, before turning to the window again. Then, he suddenly remembered his conversation with Lestrade at the church that afternoon and almost bit his lip with guilt.

"Oh, shit."

It was supposed to be silent, an exclamation only for his own ears as self-realisation had struck, but unfortunately, it came out a bit louder than he expected.

Hermione looked up with panic filled eyes, "What? Who did you tell?"

Sherlock had also turned to him with a raised eyebrow while Mrs. Hudson seemed to scowl at his language. John bit his lip harder before turning to a panicked Hermione with more guilt than he should feel.

"I uh… kind of told many people at once and I think people at Scotland Yard knew and I umm… accidently might have confirmed that this afternoon."

Hermione's eyes widened as she stammered, "What do you mean many peop- and wait, Scotland Yard?" she almost shouted the last part.

"Oh No. Fuck No." she cursed, and moved towards John in a few steps which were too quick for her height. "Right. Who exactly, tell me each and every person you told. Now." She was almost nose to nose with John and he couldn't help but feel a weird shiver go up his spine - all he wanted to do was to get away from Hermione at that moment; there was something severely strong and powerful near her, _in her_, and John could feel a weird sensation rolling off her as the girl stood glaring at him with all her might.

He stumbled backwards a few steps and let out a deep breath before blurting it all in one breath - "I write a blog about myself and Sherlock and I might have mentioned about you moving in here with us on the first day you shifted your stuff, but I didn't know that I shouldn't, you hadn't mentioned anything like that so I didn't see the harm but I'm sorry."

He could feel Sherlock's gaze on his back but he dared not turn - he was looking right at Hermione for her reaction, feeling worried.

"A blog," The petite woman clutched her forehead with one hand before breathing hard through her nose a few times. "Right."

"Right," she said again, backing off to the couch again, "I'm sorry for that, John. I honestly should have mentioned it to you guys but I forgot, really, my fault, that was. Sorry to trouble you with this Mrs. Hudson but I guess they'll just, scatter, in some time, hopefully." She sighed at last and transported her things to her own room.

"I'll just make a few calls to some people to get out of this mess. Sorry for that John. I'll clear this up as soon as possible, Mrs. Hudson. And John, I'd really love one of those painkillers."

* * *

><p>The crowd in the street seemed to lessen after an hour or so, during which Hermione had made some urgent phone calls, sworn and shouted at about three people, while juggling the coffee, the phone and Crookshanks. The cat had been trying to get on her lap and kept nudging her or doing something with his tail, and after a few minutes of it, decided that it would be cool to just find a new lap - which happened to be Sherlock's.<p>

While John was undeniably thankful that this new lap hadn't been his, he was also quite delighted to see Sherlock managing a cat. It kept nuzzling at his chest or elbow and he drew it away a few times after which he just threw helpless looks at John whenever he did that. John pretended not to notice, seeing Sherlock uncomfortable with an animal he couldn't experiment on was more precious than his morals.

Wait.

Oh no. He'd have to warn Hermione about that. It would only be a few more attacks from Crookshanks before Sherlock decided that the cat was good to experiment on.

* * *

><p>After the crowd had lessened considerably, and only a few bystanders were left, Lavender appeared in a shiny black car, which was definitely not a taxi but looked like some model of Mercedes, with a bag of some biscuits and they had tea again after two hours, which Hermione seemed to be thankful for.<p>

John managed to sneak in a warning to Hermione and Lavender while they were ravishing the biscuits but unfortunately, Sherlock , who had seemed to be busy with deleting John's post from his blog, after a rather polite request by Hermione, (it had been worrying him at the back of his mind how Sherlock seemed to be flexible and accepting without even once asking about what it had in it for him) had heard.

He had frowned at John disapprovingly from his perch near the fireplace, "John, I fail to see the problem in experimenting with the cat when he is going to be alive in the end of my ministrations. Also, in my own humble opinion, I'd like to say that you should stop worrying about the cat since he doesn't even like you and prefers me over you, which means he trusts me more so that would give me his permission, in a twisted sense of the word, to er… tinker, with him."

Hermione had her eyebrows hovering somewhere near her hairline and looked at John with the same did-he-just-say/do-that expression that he had seen on Lestrade's face often and Lavender seemed to be too stumped to say anything.

"I'll uhh… just ignore that." Hermione said.

"You're getting good at this already." John grinned at her, trying not to wonder what exactly this girl was.

"So, why are they after you so often, Hermione?" Sherlock asked, looking at the laptop again.

"Sorry? What are we talking about?" Lavender said, confused with the sudden question.

"I'd have to answer that assuming you did not just admit to having evil plans related to my cat." Hermione answered coolly, looking at her cup.

"Let's assume that then." Sherlock answered with a smirk, finally looking up and snapping the laptop shut.

"Well," Hermione sighed, "I should probably tell you that I work rather high up in the Ministry and I joined just a year ago."

John thought he saw Lavender tense up a bit but he couldn't be sure because her expression was back to normal in the next second.

"So well, I think you can figure out that I got promoted a lot and within the past year, I got a few laws passed regarding some... issues. And well, you know that not everyone agrees with you, especially when you're a public figure at such a young age. There's got to be haters along with fans and well, I guess you probably know what I mean. Media likes to get dirt on heroes and all, so yeah."

Silence met her words as she sipped her tea and John remembered Theo mentioning a Civil War the other day. He didn't remember asking about Hermione's role in it all and was just about to do so, when Lavender uttered a curse, looking at her watch.

"Okay, gotta go, I have that meeting with Purgs in half an hour, see you guys later!" she said, typing hurriedly on her phone and grabbing her coat.

She then shook hands with John, hesitated for a moment and then did the same with Sherlock and hugged Hermione briefly before dashing out of the door with the last shout of "Bye John, Bye Sherlock, Bye Hermy!"

John smirked at the last name she had called Hermione but Hermione was already speaking before he could form the thought, her face with a slight pink tinge-

"Don't you ever dare to call me that!"

**Note: This chapter has been Beta-d by CleopatraIsMyName.**

**Whoa. Big one there. Breaks the record of the previous one- this is more than that, definitely. Hope this made up for lost time. :)**

**How was it? I hope ya liked it- I sacrificed a night's sleep and I never compromise with that but whatever, better be thankful.**

**And yes, Review lots please! I'd love to hear, maybe it could be worth the Holy-Sleep-Sacrifice too. :D**


	8. Mycroft

**Soo. I have lots of excuses like Exams and what not for not updating sooner but I reckon you wouldn't want to hear much. Also, I am terribly sorry to all my lovely readers who reviewed and I couldn't reply back to them; I have been awfully busy with life. So a HUGE thanks to _666Spektor_, _Shadows-Fallen-Angel_, _Aurora Heiress_, _TheAlabasterPheonyx, __artemisgirl,__Wholockian394_,_Sarah_, _nara_, _Sethiel_ and _guests_. You guys have my gratitude for the reviews, which kept on alerting me randomly that I owe you guys a chapter really soon. I have more to say but that will be at the end.**

**For now, enjoy!**

**Chapter-8**

After Lavender left, Sherlock disappeared with Crookshanks into the kitchen and John settled for a few magazines he had picked up from the Yard that morning. Hermione was scowling at her phone – had been doing so for the past half hour and John had honestly wondered if he should ask what was up but in the end, when Hermione didn't respond twice, he resigned to the realization that he was doomed with another occassionaly - unresponsive flatmate.

He decided to retire early, seeing as there wasn't much going on in the living room and he needed to be up early for an interview at a new place. He had lost the last job a week and a half ago and though Hermione's presence made the rent easier, it didn't reduce the rest of the expenses.

"Hermione?"

John rolled his eyes again and clicked his fingers in front of Hermione's form (not between her face and the phone though; somehow, that just sounded dangerous), feeling somewhat like a magician who summons his assistants by clicking his fingers.

It had the desired effect on Hermione and she looked up at him, eyes unfocused but trained on him. "At what time do you leave for-"

"John, are there cameras around the flat?" she interrupted, looking around with narrow eyes, as if X-raying everything with the stare.

"Wha- No. I mean, there might be... Why? What made you think that?"

"There might be?"

John noticed she wasn't answering him but ignored it, "Well, Sherlock's brother Mycroft likes to keep an eye on him. Just to make sure he doesn't get into trouble, you know."

"Huh. So Holmes is so busy nowadays that he can't personally come to meet his brother?" a raised eyebrow accompanied this comment and Hermione started shuffling the things around, probably looking for the cameras.

"It's in the bookshelf." John supplied helpfully, receiving a crooked half-smile. Wow, Hermione did it the same way Sherlock did- half rise of the lips from one side. 'Wondrous talent some people have,' John pondered ruefully.

"Good of you to know and still not remove them."

"Good? Shouldn't you be worried that more people know you're here?"

Hermione flashed him a real smile this time, "No. The worst is over, the street might start to remain a little more crowded but whatever. It's not like..."

She stopped mid-sentence, as realization of some unknown fact seemed to sink in. She grimaced at John, making a face, "I've put you guys and Mrs. Hudson in a bit of a complex. Huh. Anyway, we'll have to discuss a security question about me. There are going to be strangers asking if I live here- Oh hell, they'll already know I live here so you can't deny that but if they ask for entry or that they want to meet me, you guys will have to ask a question and if, and only if, they answer it correctly, are they allowed upstairs."

"It's not a question of privacy but also for all of yours security. I hope you got the seriousness John." She said, her arms folded tightly, looking very serious.

John nodded, trying to convey he understood. He understood the importance of security- living with Sherlock made sure of that. What he actually wondered though, was that would it be really safe to have Hermione here in this flat? A famous Consulting Detective who blows up people's egos on a daily basis and a badass secret service government worker? (Because yes, he couldn't help but think of Hermione as badass after the time he saw her shouting at people yesterday and the way she made him shiver, not in a good way) He couldn't help but feel this arrangement would blow up soon- as soon as Lestrade failed to drop interesting cases in Sherock's lap. Or maybe, as soon as this case finished, the one with the reversed victims.

"Right. Now then, you were asking something when you called?"

The interview. Tomorrow morning. Right.

"Oh yes, I wanted to know when you leave for your office everyday?"

"8 o'clock. Why?"

"My alarm's dead. Isn't working. Reckon I need to replace the batteries."

"Dr. Watson, are you asking me to replace your alarm clock for a day?"

"I- uh, yes?" He was thankful to hear the teasing tone in her voice and replied as lightly, though he knew Hermione understood what he meant.

He bade her goodnight and peeked into the kitchen to check on Sherlock, just to make sure he wasn't doing something questionable with the cat. He was thankful to find that Sherlock working with the microscope while Crookshanks was absent.

He said a goodnight to which Sherlock responded by merely grunting, and made his way to the room, to get ready for the night. It was when he was almost finished, that he remembered how Hermione had called Myroft Mr. Holmes, while he was sure he hadn't mentioned it...

... John racked his brains to remember a time when Sherlock's full name had been used but... he came to a dead end.

Hastily wiping his mouth, John went to the living room to find it empty. He glanced at Hermione's door- it was closed. Locked? Dare he check? Or knock?

No. That probably wouldn't be wise. She'd obviously retired for the night.

He had already started moving towards the kitchen to talk to Sherlock of his doubts, when he remembered about his theory on the blow up of this arrangement. As soon as Sherlock put his efforts into cracking what he had already mentally christened as 'The Hermione Case', he had the strongest feeling that things would start to get rough from then on.

So, he quietly trudged back to his bedroom, falling unceremoniously into the bed with a thump, trying his best not to dwell much on what he had just realized.

* * *

><p>Next morning, John woke to loud knocks on his bedroom door.<p>

What did Sherlock want this early? And since when had he learnt to knock?

He grunted a barely audible 'Come in' and the door opened too loudly for his liking.

Or maybe it was just the voice.

"Rise and shine, cupcake!" the shrill voice shouted in his ear, making him sit up and rub the said ear groggily, feeling like he'd lost his hearing for a couple of seconds.

Suddenly, the room was flooded with light; the curtains had just been tugged away with a loud screech.

Since when did Sherlock shriek and come to wake him in the mornings? John wondered, trying to shield his eyes from the sudden brightness and rubbing away-

Wait, since when did Sherlock have a female voice?

John shot a look at the window to see Hermione grinning in a cat-like way at him. He pulled the covers onto him as fast as he could manage, while squeaking out a shrill 'Hermione!'

She came towards him, all smiles and rainbows, looking ready to leave, "You asked me to wake you! Hurry up! Your interview's in an hour!"

She made towards the door then, casting him another look, "There's breakfast in the kitchen, finish up all of it. Sherlock didn't respond when I called him, so try to get something in his system."

John closed his mouth after ten seconds of the door banging shut.

* * *

><p>The interview was successful and John felt satisfied by the time all the necessary chores of the day were done, by late afternoon.<p>

It was almost five when the doorbell rang and heavy steps alerted John of a visitor. Mrs. Hudson was chatting loudly, so it was probably someone they knew.

"...adjusted quite well with Sherlock, yes she has. He's keeping out of trouble too, I must say, no wonder there aren't any complaints yet..."

Mycroft Holmes entered behind her, smiling his enigmatic smile, his ever-faithful umbrella by his side. He scanned the room immediately and John knew at once what he was looking for.

"Late afternoon, Mycroft? To what do we owe the pleasure?" John shook the man's hand, offering him the sofa as he sat on his armchair, but Mycroft remained standing.

"Ah yes, been very busy with the newest development, the dragons are really restless this week." He replied, smiling all the same.

John wasn't sure he'd right though...

"I expect the Doctor's finally being harsh." Sherlock entered, shooting Mycroft the sneer he specially reserved for him.

Mycroft seemed to bristle at the comment, shooting a sideways glance at Mrs. Hudson.

"It's her cakes, make her stop sending the stuffed things and I'll stop eating them."

The old woman opened her mouth in protest but Sherlock beat her to the punch. "You would do equally well to impose self-control and not eat them even if she sends them, which I'm sure she wouldn't if you stopped complimenting her cakes."

Mycroft's lips thinned and his expression changed to the business-like facade he more usually adopted when he wanted to irritate his brother.

"My intention," Mycroft declared, seating himself on the seat in which Sherlock was about to throw himself in, "for today's visit, wasn't Mrs. Hudson's cakes-"

"-obviously-"

"I have, as a matter of fact, received intelligence, that you have a new flatmate."

"I think it's quite useless to ask if the 'intelligence' was the camera or one of your minions?"

"It was, actually, John's blog."

John felt himself sink into his chair at that, feeling deflated. Hermione wanted less and less people to know and now Mycroft knew too. He just hoped that Mycroft wasn't going to mention it to Hermione or go on his 'spy mode' on her.

"Aha! Another victim." Sherlock grinned over at John, apparently enjoying his discomfort immensely.

"Yes, yes, I know all about the fiasco which occurred yesterday. Took a lot of time shutting them up."

John thought he heard a snap from Sherlock's direction as he whipped to look at his brother, but he was himself busy gaping at Mycroft.

Did this mean that he-

The doorbell rang again, and John scanned the room, finding that Mrs. Hudson had already left, without any of them noticing. The sound of footsteps followed that of the door being shut and John shared a mutual glance with Sherlock.

Hermione.

The door opened to reveal the woman looking windswept and tired, though her expression changed as her eyes sought out the occupants.

"Mycroft!" she almost squealed, dropping her purse on the table and quickly enveloping the older man into a hug which could only be called _affectionate_.

Mycroft looked mildly disgruntled but he patted Hermione before she let him go, grinning like the freaking sun.

"What a pleasant surprise! And here I was, thinking how irresponsible of you to keep tabs on him via a camera, of all things! Really, you need to visit him more often!" she twittered, her arm still on Mycroft's side.

"You know how my duties are, Hermione, I can't afford to pay the homely visits often."

"Of course, the government and all." Hermione said seriously, though gave it away with a wink.

John felt rather like a stage prop, having been listening to the conversation with a sense of growing amazement. Their new flatmate just _happened _to know Mycroft? And that too on a first name basis? _Indigestion alert._

"Hold on, you... you both know each other?" John said, looking once at Sherlock, who was watching with silent, narrow eyes, before turning his 'what-the-bloody-hell' look with full force on the two I-work-in-a-fucking-secret-government-department individuals.

"Yeah, through work." Hermione smiled at him like it was very normal to know The Mycroft Holmes enough to hug him without permission.

"How's the ache?" she asked Mycroft, losing her coat and scarf in the meanwhile.

"Oh good. Sweets banned for a month, at least."

"Aw, poor you. I'll throw in a word to Mr. Simmons for a little break. Why don't you catch up while I freshen up? We'll have tea, okay?"

"Oh, John, you do know him, right?" she asked, stopping in her way, as if she really didn't know.

"Of course I do. He's Sherlock's brother, how can I not know him. The question's about you actually, knowing him?"

"It was at work. Mycroft, do tell them the story, it was bloody hilarious."

And she disappeared into her room, leaving him more than a little confused and well, very confused.

"You sent her to spy on me?"

Sherlock's words were quiet in the room but they rang in the thick silence.

"Of course not, little brother. I believed you were more capable than that."

"What? What capable?"

"Well, I did say that I received information of her stay. Would I need that if I'd sent her? I said it so clearly and yet, shame, Sh-"

"John's post was made two days ago and yet, you come today. I barely think this was because of the toothache."

"I had other matters on my hands-"

"Like what? Dragons?"

"Hardly, Sherlock. You know that I would-"

"You know where she works."

John had settled himself back on his sofa by now, ensured that the uh, brotherly banter, between the brothers would be enough to enlighten him to the point of satisfaction. Sherlock finally seemed to be getting on point.

"Yes."

"And she knows the dentist."

"Yes."

"I don't know the dentist and she knows the dentist!" he practically shouted, and John could hardly keep himself from rolling his eyes.

"Ms. Granger is a very important staff member of the team her community works with. I was merely curious as to how she was coping here. It had nothing to do with keeping tabs on you. In fact, she was more disappointed when she learned that I didn't come to visit you daily, as if I'm your nanny."

Mycroft's words were spiteful but Sherlock didn't visibly flinch.

"Moreover, the purpose of my visit was to discuss with her if she was wholly comfortable here and about _your_ overall conduct."

"Means a lot, does it, her comfort?" Sherlock said, equally spiteful.

"Yes. You must stay out of her way, Sherlock. And I'm serious this time. She is not a woman to be messed with. You don't want to be on her bad side."

"Oh, I've heard that a lot."

"I mean it, if you get into a spot with her, it'll be out of my hands. You'll be on your own; your deeds, your consequences."

Sherlock's eyebrows were a part if his hairline, and John expected his to be on the same level.

Out of Mycroft's hands? This was news.

Sherlock didn't respond verbally and the silence was taut again.

Hermione entered the room in the next moment, not taking note of their argumentative positions at all. "Why are you standing, Sherlock? Take a seat."

"Actually, I'd better get going." Mycroft said, getting up, his smile back in place.

"So soon? I was going to make tea."

"Well yes, I've got matters to attend to, as you know." His eyes flicked in Sherlock's direction briefly before turning back to Hermione. "I hope you've adjusted well here? My brother not creating many problems yet, I hope?"

"Oh, he's been a sweetheart. But that's probably because he has a case to keep him occupied, isn't it Sherlock?" she was smiling, but there was something in her tone that John didn't like. He couldn't finger it, though.

Sherlock hummed and turned his back to them, evidently finding it boring, now that he couldn't jab or ask Mycroft anymore questions.

"Well, give my love to Harry, and of course, the twins. They're all okay, I hope?"

"Y-yes. Of course. It was lovely to see you, you should come over more often." She stammered, but then smiled, a fake one that John recognised with surprising ease. The thought of these people put her to unease; _interesting_.

"Good night, Hermione. John, Sherlock." Mycroft bade them goodbye, no hint of their earlier argument in his tone.

Hermione stood awkwardly still for a couple of seconds before turning to John expectantly, "Well, you'll have that tea, right? I'm starving!"

**So, I guess Mycroft does know our Hermione. For any questions about them and also almost the whole gang of Harry's year being friends, more will be revealed in the next chapter. Also guys, I'm nearing A HUNDERED REVIEWS! I swear, I AM SOOOOO EXCITED! And more than 300 follows, and near a hundred and fifty favoriates! This is just totally awesome! I love each and every one of you!**

**So, moving on to important matters, I just wanted to say sorry if you guys found any errors because this chapter hasn't been Beta-ed. If anyone's interested, or would like to recommend someone for this story, I would be really thankful. Please PM me regarding this, I'm open to all chat. :)**

**ALSO, a few of you had requested Mycroft's appearance and even though I had this already planned, _Wholockian39_ and _waterflower20_. Thank you guys for you-know-what. :D  
><span>**

**Otherwise, _artemisgirl_: Thank you so much for that, the pairings are still something I am undecided about and to EVERYONE: I might be putting up a poll since all the reviews are just making me totally confused. Either that, or I'm just going to keep it neutral. Thanks. :)**

**_TheAlabasterPheonyx_: The Statute of Secrecy is just going to make this even more interesting veryyy soon! :D And you'll have fun if you like the others are friends.**

**_Sarah_- I'm glad you liked that. And I think Purgs is new but he might have been mentioned here or there maybe.**

**_Sethiel_- All I have to say is Draco and Hermione are good friends. :)**

**_Aurora Heiress, Shadows-Fallen-Angel,_ _666Spektor,__nara_ and _guests:_ Thank you for reviewing guys, here is your update! I hope you enjoyed. :)**

**Lastly, sorry for such a long A/N. Lol.**


	9. Appointment

**I deserve all the hate. I'm terrible, I know. I'v been mentally kicking mysyelf to get on with this chapterfor weeks now... since April. Months then. But I swear to you, I will try my best not to get that huge a gap come into it again. By the way, I start college this year, so no promises, but I will try my bestestestest. I solemnly swear. To all who reviewed and followed, I cannot even begin to say how thankful I am, especially _James Birdsong_, _DianneBaquiran_ and _Comic Con. _Especially the last one, for giving me a virtual kicking. Thanks mate. I deserved and really needed it. **

**Anyway, this was actually a really very long chapter but I hadn't got the last part very well so I divided it. Will update soon now, promise. Please enjoy, and try to forgive me.**

**Chapter 9:**

It was lunchtime at work. John had never had the need to speak to Mycroft himself. It was always the older brother who contacted him and then proceeded to… well, kidnap was the only word to describe it. Now, he wanted to talk to him, and he supposed there was no other option than to call Mycroft on his cell. He didn't know if he would even pick up. He was unaware of the brother's schedule so he had no idea if it was the right time to call. Well, there was only one way to find out.

It was five rings later than Mycroft picked up. "John, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Straight to business as usual. He shouldn't have been expecting a 'How are you?' _That_ would've been just unusual.

"Ah, hello Mycroft. I was, ah… wondering, if we could meet? I have something to talk to you about. It's important."

It would be best not to mention anything now. If he heard Hermione's name, Mycroft would obviously just say no, repeating what he had said yesterday. But John _had_ to talk to him about the girl, before Sherlock did, and it was best to do so face to face.

There was silence for about ten seconds, before Mycroft replied, "The car will be outside your office at 4." And the line was cut.

Of course Mycroft knew the time he got off. Well, at least he got the appointment, sort of.

* * *

><p>He was lead to the room rather painlessly this time. He was sure it was because Mycroft was a bit curious.<p>

"Good evening, John. Have a seat." He said, as they entered his office. He was already there, in his seat, reading over a file.

"'Evening, Mycroft. I hope I'm not disturbing you."

"Oh, not at all. Do tell what it is this matter of importance that brings you to my office."

"Ah, it's about Hermione, you see." He said, shifting a bit, and Mycroft looked a bit surprised, but recovered quickly.

"What about Miss Granger?"

John adjusted himself again. God, the chair was uncomfortable. "Well, I think there's something wrong with her."

Mycroft raised an eyebrow.

"I mean I know there's nothing _wrong _with her, it's just… I don't know. I can't pinpoint it, but there's something off about her. It's like, there's nothing wrong with her, there's something wrong _about_ her."

Mycroft observed him for a moment, before sighing loudly. "John, I say this with the utmost respect for my brother's abilities, but it has to be made very clear that Hermione Granger is not a force to be reckoned with."

"I made it very much clear, yesterday, that you should try to stay out of her way as much as possible."

"I understand that, Mycroft, I really do, but I hope you understand your brother." John said quickly, he had to get as much out of Mycroft as he could. "He's not going to ignore her over his cases for much long, and once he gets on it, I'm sure you know how long it will be before he uncovers everything. Or how short."

"Well, then it's a good thing that his cases are occupying him nicely."

John couldn't help raising his eyebrows a bit, as he realized that Mycroft could actually have something to do with the cases. "You can't keep him occupied forever. You know he will pick up on it as soon as he gets a sniff of anything unusual."

Mycroft rubbed his chin slightly, and John was reminded of his tooth doctor. How was it that Mycroft knew Hermione so well, and still referred to her as Miss Granger? Still mentioned her as dangerous, even when she _hugged_ him?

"You are right, of course, John. I will try my best to occupy him for as much time as possible. I do not see how that has anything to do with your visit."

John contemplated for a moment. "As much as you say that she's dangerous, I like her. Yes, there's something seemingly wrong with her, but I don't want this to blow up in our faces. Which according to you, will happen if Sherlock sets one foot wrong."

"It is important that you understand this, John. I don't say she's dangerous. I am saying that she is a _highly_ dangerous woman."

"Yet, she knows your dentist."

Mycroft almost grimaced at that. John hid a smile, but continued. "Why, though? I don't understand. Why is she such a highly dangerous woman?"

Mycroft seemed like he would like to kick John out of his office, a hand had begun moving towards his head, and he leaned backwards on his chair, and looked up, then back at him.

"It is not that difficult to understand, John. She holds an office very much higher than me in the British Government. She is a kind woman, yes, her personality is very charming given her position, but both of those facts are not as dangerous as the talents she possesses. Make this very clear John, that if any difficulty arises regarding her, it will not be in my hands to do anything. No matter how big or small the matter is, you must not expect any help from my side."

John looked at the man before him in silence for a few moments. Mycroft observed his ceiling. After some time, he said, "You know it will be dangerous for your brother if he starts, yet all you do to avoid that situation is provide him false cases. An excuse, which we know he will see through very soon."

"What would you have me do?" Mycroft replied quickly, with a sideway glance at John. It took him some time to reply to that.

"Let me help. No listen. Tell me more about her, and those friends she keeps mentioning. I'v seen three of them. There was Lavender, I think, her Secretary, then Theo, the one who helped her move in and Draco Malfoy. They seemed pretty close. What's the deal with them?"

Mycroft's eyebrows were raised and he looked actually surprised with that. "I do not think that an alliance with them will be of any help…" he said, but John could detect the unconvincing tone in his voice.

"Who are they anyway? As important and dangerous as Hermione?"

"Yes. Very. Draco Malfoy owns a chain of wiz- a chain of restaurants, you could say, a very important chain. He is quite rich and influential, even in the Government, though less than Miss Granger. I never had the fortune to meet him. Lavender Brown is Hermione Granger's personal secretary, but they are very close, otherwise. Theo, or Theodore Nott, is a shady man. He gets up to business that is better left out of this conversation, but yes, he is also, quite dangerous. All three are very old, childhood friends; it is because they apparently went to the same school. There are a few others that are known to be very close. In fact, they are a close knit group of people, and are known to keep to themselves, even in their own community."

Own community. This conversation was making him more confused than before. But it was helping in making one aspect very clear to him. No matter what Mycroft said about Hermione being a dangerous woman, there was one small fact he seemed to be ignoring.

"Mycroft, you do realize that if these people are as dangerous as you say they are, there is more benefit in getting in their good graces than avoiding them?"

Mycroft didn't even seem to consider it. He laughed outright at him, and John muttered to himself, "It was worth a try."

"You do realize that we're talking about Sherlock here? Get into their good graces, yes, very likely to happen John."

"Well, I think they get along rather well."

Mycroft cocked an eyebrow at him, silently telling him to explain. "Well, Sherlock isn't as insulting to her as he is to others, he just seems… well, normal, to be honest. Also, Hermione is also quite different to normal people, so she doesn't really get insulted soon, if you know what I mean."

Mycroft seemed to contemplate it for a minute, and John added, "He even tried to make her coffee once."

Mycroft nodded, "It is not a bad idea to be considered."

"I will, of course, help all along. I'm way better at making friends than your brother."

Mycroft cracked a smile at that. "Yes, it could work quite well. Plus, I think it does help that Hermione has a soft spot for Sherlock ever since she saw that pirate photo of his."

John raised his eyebrows at Mycroft's almost evil smile. Just then, his cell phone vibrated, and he widened his eyes at the name flashing on the screen.

"Say the name of the devil." He said, and swiping his finger across the screen, raised his phone to his ear with a meaningful grimace at John.

"Good evening, Miss Granger."

**Please review and tell me I have not lost my touch. I'm officially nervous.**

**PS: New story, TVD crossover 'As I Lay Dying'. If you guys are too curious to know who exactly is in the HP gang in this story, the first few (I think three) chapters of that story have a very good view of the mechanics of that group. You should check them out for answers on who exactly is in Hermione's group here too. Just wanted to inform, all your wish though. **


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